Following the team with a unique perspective on all things Phillies. Email me: PhilliesPhollowers@comcast.net – Peace, Love & Baseball – Jenn

Results tagged ‘ Shane Victorino ’

Despite an early exit from the playoffs, the Phillies 102 regular season wins and stellar individual performances have earned some players much deserved honors.

Earlier this offseason, Placido Polanco was awarded a Gold Glove for his work at third base. Polly also won the award playing second base for the Tigers in 2007 and 2009. He and Darin Erstad are now the only two players in big league history to win a Gold Glove at multiple positions.

MLB.com also handed out awards on Monday. Ryan Howard was named the club’s Player of the Year, while right-hander Roy Halladay was chosen the team’s Pitcher of the Year. And rookie right-hander Vance Worley was voted the Breakout Player of the Year.

Not to be outdone, the Philadelphia chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America put its two cents in as well. Center-fielder Shane Victorino was the winner of the Mike Schmidt Award for Most Valuable Player and left-hander Cliff Lee received the Steve Carlton Award for Most Valuable pitcher.

The big awards come out next week which will include Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year and the Cy Young award. It is expect that many Phillies will be considered for these top honors, but realistically, none of them will win. Charlie Manuel is overlooked every year in the manager category; Worley will probably lose out to Freddie Freeman. As for the Cy Young, both Halladay and Lee will probably get passed over in favor of Clayton Kershaw who had 21 wins and an almost invisible 2.28 ERA.

Of course, anything can happen. But those are my predictions…how about you? Leave your best guess in the comments and we will see who gets it right.

I just finished my yearly Phillies photo tribute! I shot all of these photos during the 2011 season which include game photos, every player who was on the big league roster (even if for only a split second), a few alumni shots and other goodies.

The “For Fun” section is my favorite. I collect funny shots throughout the year, like players with the giggles, guys sticking out their tongues, silly faces and lots more. Do not worry, they are all family friendly. The really fun ones I keep to myself ;o)

Happy Halloween! In keeping with my yearly tradition, I have again dressed up our favorite Phillies players for this special holiday. Some are repeats from previous years that still crack me up. And some are brand new and also very funny.

We begin with a new set of costumes; here as Batman, Robin and Luke Skywalker are Cole Hamels, Carlos Ruiz and Hunter Pence:

One of my all-time favorites, it is Roy Halladay as Iron Man, Kyle Kendrick as a random super hero and Ryan Howard as the Hulk:

Next up are some new & old mixed together; Cliff Lee is a magician, Chase Utley is Superman (of course) and Michael Stutes is Michael Jackson. BTW, the only thing I added to the Stutes photo is the glove. The rest was an outfit he actually wore to Shane Victorino’s charity fashion event this year:

And here we have John Mayberry Jr. as Count Dracula, Raul Ibanez as Captain Jack Sparrow and Ryan Madson as Robin Hood:

Another favorite costume adventure is Jimmy Rollins in a dual role as both the Easter Bunny and Papa Smurf:

And for the Grand Finale, Shane Victorino is “The Situation” from Jersey Shore and Placido Polanco is a matador:

First, congratulations to the St. Louis Cardinals. They played well and deserved to win this series. And that statement may be the only light moment in this post today…

I am angry, disappointed and thoroughly disgusted by this loss and the effort this Phillies team put forth in this NLDS series. I apologize in advance if anyone is offended by what I am about to say, but I need a good rant to get this off my chest.

I do not want to hear, “We’ll get them next year.” I do not want to hear, “Hindsight is 20/20.” Because frankly, the issues on this Phillies team are not hindsight. They are glaring problems that were obvious to me before the series even began. If they were obvious to me, what I want to know, is why weren’t they to manager Charlie Manuel?

As my first example, take Placido Polanco. This is a guy who normally hits at least .300 every year. But he has been playing on a hip that will require surgery this offseason. Manuel said after the game that Polly was in pain, but still able to play. Just because he is ABLE to play, does not mean he should have.

Polanco batted .105 in the series and should have been benched both for his lack of production and for his health. Putting a guy with a bum hip in the line-up every day was almost a guarantee of an 0-4 day. Wilson Valdez played in 99 games in the regular season and came through many times in big situations. Valdez would have at least accidentally run into a hit at some point.

I am not saying Valdez should have played every game, but Polly certainly should not have stayed in the line-up once it was obvious that he was unable to hit with this injury. This was a huge mistake.

Another huge mistake was Ryan Howard. Can anyone think of a good reason for Howard to be tinkering with his stance and location in the batter’s box during a playoff series? No? Neither can I. He did pretty well the 1st two games and then suddenly by Game 3, he had moved so far back in the batter’s box that he was almost in New Jersey.

Howard messed with his approached and screwed both himself and this team, going 0 for his last 15 at-bats. And why is a guy who is not hitting giving the 3-0 green light? WTF. Seriously.

So Howard made the final out of the postseason again, two years in a row, in the most pathetic manner possible. He hurt his Achilles and went down like a sack of potatoes trying to exit the batter’s box. He had to be helped off the field. Fittingly, the look on his face matched the feeling of every Phillies fans in attendance and watching at home; sheer agony.

Next up, Chase Utley….you all know I love Mr. Utley. But WHY is he taking a chance trying to steal a base in a 1-0 elimination game against Yadier Molina who throws just about everyone he faces out in that situation?

And my new favorite topic of discussion is Jimmy Rollins. Rollins may be the only player who had a pretty good series until the final game. He openly scolded fans about being too quiet after Game 2 and asked them to give it their all in Game 5. Ok, fine. The fans more than obliged and Rollins proceeded to go 0-4 in the game. The fans brought it, why didn’t Rollins? After the game, Rollins would not speak to reporters. Go figure.

And then there is Raul Ibanez. I can see letting him start most games, but when he started swinging at balls 2 feet out of the strike zone, this is a sign. Ibanez goes hot and cold like the flip of a switch. When he is obviously cold, take him out! Give John Mayberry Jr. a shot. TRY something to kick start this horrid offense!

Hunter Pence and Carlos Ruiz were just as bad in this series. After ending the season with a .314 average, Pence hit only .211 in the NLDS. Ruiz was worse, going 1-17 which equates to a .059 average.

Shane Victorino and Rollins were they only two guys who hit with any sort of consistency, but Rollins crashed and burned in the final game.

And then there is the line-up as a whole. Manuel moved Utley to the 2-hole and Pence to the 3-hole. This worked well for all of maybe 3 games total? – A few in at the end of the regular season and Game 1 of the NLDS? Howard hit well before with Pence behind him. Why mess with that once it stopped working?

Manuel is big on what he calls playing the guys who got them to this point. I’ve got news for Charlie…Valdez, Mayberry and sometimes Michael Martinez were a HUGE part of what got this team there, filling in for injured players and making big plays. But he started Mayberry once and totally ignored the other guys.

And now for the pitching…Roy Halladay gave everything he had and gave up only one run. He would have bled for this team if he thought it would help. But the team let him down and could not score even one lousy run for the one guy who has carried them all year. Disgusting. After the game, Halladay said that the worst part of the loss was letting down the fans who were so supportive all year. For me, the person I feel the worst for is Halladay. He deserved a win; he earned it. This team should be ashamed of letting him down like this.

And among the rest of the four aces, only Cole Hamels pitched well. Cliff Lee blew a 4-run lead in Game 2, which was the real turning point of the series. Once that happened, the Cards knew they had the Phils by the balls. It was all downhill from there.

The Game 3 win was a freak accident, thanks to a Ben Francisco homer. But the Phillies did not really earn that win. And in Game 4, Roy Oswalt choked and gave up 5 runs. So much for four aces. Because the Cardinals had the royal flush.

This is possible the biggest let-down for any Phillies team in history since Black Friday on October 7, 1977 when Davey Lopes with the Dodgers was called safe and the momentum propelled the Dodgers to win the series. So Friday October 7, 2011 (yes, the same day) may go down in history as Black Friday II.

With the pitching staff the Phillies assembled this year and the overall talent on this team, to see them lose the NLDS is a gut-wrenching tragedy. I would not be surprised to see GM Ruben Amaro Jr. at the top of a very tall building today contemplating where it all went wrong.

I feel sorry for Ruben – he did his job, got them the players they needed and has nothing to show for it. In fact, this Phillies team since the 2008 World Series win has taken one huge step backwards each year following: in 2009 they lost the World Series; in 2010 they lost the NLCS; and now in 2011, they lost the NLDS. One step further back each year – if the trend continues, they will not even make the playoffs next year.

The window of opportunity for this team to win is about to close, which is the worst part of this horrible loss. The main players are getting older, they are more injury prone and many may not even be back next year. This may officially wind up being the worst offseason in Phillies recent history.

So I am ready to spit nails, how about you? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

With the NLDS series tied 1-1 between the Phillies and the Cardinals, Game 3 was going to be big for the winner. The Phillies had not been able to hit Cards starter Jaime Garcia in previous meetings, so for the Phillies, this was not an easy task.

Equally intimidating, Cole Hamels pitched for the Phillies. Over 6 innings, he did not allow a single run. But multiple base runners and deep counts ran Hamels out of the game earlier than the Phillies would have liked.

There was no score by the time Hamels was out of the game, but an unlikely hero emerged in the top of the 7th inning to keep Hamels in-line for the win. Shane Victorino singled to start the inning and later, Carlos Ruiz was intentionally walked to bring up Big Ben Francisco.

Outfielder Francisco was a relative non-factor most of the year after the emergence of John Mayberry Jr. and the acquisition of Hunter Pence. He hit only 6 homers the entire regular season and saw limited at-bats.

But on the one night the Phillies really needed a hero, Big Ben stepped up with a 3-run blast in the 7th. Even better, the bomb came off a pitch from Garcia who suddenly lost some of his command in that inning. Finally, the Phillies hit Garcia and took a 3-0 lead.

The Phillies bullpen made the final 3 inning a real adventure though. Vance Worley gave up a run in the 7th. Then he and Brad Lidge combined to load the bases in the 8th. But Ryan Madson, brought into the game earlier than usual, coaxed a double play ball to end the threat. Madson did give up a run later in the 9th, but still earned the save.

This was a huge win for the Phillies who now need only one more win to erase the Cards and advance to the NLCS. Roy Oswalt will pitch tomorrow night; game time is 6:00pm.

Game 1 of the Phillies – CardinalsNLDS looked like a party before the game began:

Then after scoring 3 runs off Phillies ace Roy Halladay in the first inning, the Cardinals were given false hopes of possibly winning the game. After all, Halladay does not usually implode in this fashion, so those 3 runs looked like a killer blow.

The fans were very quiet after that, especially when the Phillies offense got themselves out, making Kyle Lohse toss only 6 pitches in each of the first two innings. The mood was so depressing, it felt like a funeral.

But in the bottom of the 4th, the Phillies offense showed signs of life, with a little help from a Cards error. Chase Utley doubled, Ryan Howard walked and then Shane Victorino hit what should have been an easy pop-up. But David Freese dropped the ball, giving Victorino a second chance. He took advantage with an RBI-single for the Phillies first run of the game.

By the 6th inning, the Phillies had finally figured out Lohse. After Jimmy Rollins and Hunter Pence singles, Howard delivered a huge blow with a 3-run bomb, giving the Phils a 4-3 lead. Raul Ibanez added on with a 2-run shot later in the inning.

As the Phillies added on, Halladay found his groove. He did not allow a single hit to the Cards after the 2nd inning. Halladay went eight innings, allowing only the 3 runs in the 1st. This guy is amazing.

With an 11-3 lead, the Phillies decided to save Halladay’s arm for another day and gave the 9th inning to Michael Stutes. It seemed like a good situation to baptize the rookie into his 1st postseason appearance. However, it did not work out too well for Stutes.

Stutes wound up getting charged with 3 runs in 1/3 of an inning and closer Ryan Madson had to be brought in to clean up the mess. So the final score was 11-6. Worse for Stutes, this huge blunder has pretty much rendered him useless for the rest of the series.

So on to Game 2 Sunday night at 8:37pm. The good mood of the Phillies players Phillies and coaches yesterday is sure to carry over:

Extras: Infielder Pete Orr and Catcher Erik Kratz will travel with the team. RHP Justin De Fratus, LHP Joe Savery and outfielder Domonic Brown will work out in Clearwater, FL and Outfielders John Bowker and Brandon Moss and RHP Michael Schwimer have been sent home.

The only slightly interesting move here is that Blanton was chosen for the roster instead of David Herndon, despite missing most of the season with injuries. The Phillies chose experience over a younger guy, even though Herndon was with the team most of the year.

As for the pitching match-ups in the series, here are the probable starters for the Phillies and Cardinals:

Game 1: Roy Halladay vs. Kyle Lohse (ex-Phillie)

Game 2: Cliff Lee vs. Chris Carpenter (on 3 days rest)

Game 3: Cole Hamels vs. Jaime Garcia

These are some odd moves by Tony LaRussa. It will either turn out to be genius, or a huge mistake. The Phillies should be able to handle Lohse and will then get Carpenter on short rest. That is another situation they can probably take advantage of.

The pitcher the Phils have the most trouble with is Garcia, who was pushed back to Game 3 because his home numbers are much better than his road numbers.

This all seems to add up to a Phillies advantage, however, that remains to be seen. Also of note, Game 2 has been pushed back to 8:37pm (ugh) on Sunday due to the Yankees – Tigers rain postponement.

I also wanted to share with you an article I just read about how Danys Baez has helped Antonio Bastardo out of his recent pitching funk. Baez was released by the Phillies in July and was not picked up by another team. He has been sitting at home in Miami watching and noticed Bastardo, a player he previously mentored, was having problems. He reached out to Bastardo and helped him find the issues in his mechanics.

Bastardo has bounced back since then and it seems that Baez is the reason. The story made me a little sad, thinking about how much criticism Baez took while he was in Philly from fans and media. For him to swallow his pride and reach out to an ex-teammate like that is a sign of true character. He may not have been the bullpen solution the Phillies hoped for, but he gets huge brownie points in my book for just being a great guy.

After losing eight straight games since clinching the NL East, the Phillies sent Roy “Doc” Halladay to the mound today to operate on the Mets. Thanks to six scoreless innings from Doc, the Phillies had a shot at a win.

But the ailing offense would also need to find a cure for their disease. Manager Charlie Manuel decided to shuffle the line-up around to see if that band-aid might stick. Chase Utley was moved to the 2-hole, Hunter Pence to the 3-hole and Shane Victorino 5th behind Ryan Howard.

Whether it was the new line-up or just the agony of losing 8 straight, something worked. The Phillies came out swinging and scored 3 runs in the 1st inning, 2 of which came off a Pence homer. By the end of 4 innings, the Phillies had piled on 9 runs.

Every starter in the line-up had at least one hit, including Halladay. Carlos Ruiz was absolutely on fire going 4-4 with 2 RBI and a walk. Pence made up for yesterday’s blunders by going just a double short of the cycle and driving in 3 runs. Jimmy Rollins also collected 3 hits.

The only negatives in the game came out of the bullpen. After claiming that lefty Antonio Bastardo had been tipping his pitches which was the cause of his recent struggles, Manuel put Bastardo into the 7th inning to test the theory. News flash – Tipping his pitches was not the issues.

Bastardo struggled with control and missed his spots. In just 1/3 of an inning, he gave up 3 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks. It was not good. As the only lefty in the bullpen, if Bastardo cannot find his control again, this will be a huge issues in the playoffs.

Vance Worley also ran into trouble in his return to the bullpen. He closed out the 7th for Bastardo just fine, but the 8th was not as easy for him. Worley gave up one run to bring the score to 9-4.

The win gives the Phillies 99 for the season with 3 games to go against the Braves. Beating the Braves could still give them the franchise record in wins, but it may also be a catch-22. If the Braves do not get the Wild Card, it will probably go to the Cardinals. The Phillies may then wind up facing the Cards in the NLDS. They won only 3 of 9 against the Cards in the regular season.

Game 1 against the Braves is Monday night at 7:05pm; Cliff Lee will pitch.

Game one of today’s doubleheader against the Mets was highlighted by a superb performance from Cole Hamels, more crappy offense and a failure of basic math skills. Hamels went seven strong innings, allowing just a solo homer. Sadly, the homer was hit by Val Pascucci who had not hit a long ball since 2004. Pascucci spent 2008 spring training with the Phillies.

The Phillies offense sucked again against knuckleballer R.A. Dickey. I am not sure what the R.A. stands for, but I am going with “Really Annoying.” Mr. Annoying had a no-hitter going into the 7th inning when Shane Victorino finally ended the humiliation with a double.

Before that, the only base runner for the Phillies was Carlos Ruiz who worked a walk in the 6th, although the home plate umpire tried really hard not to allow it. On ball 4, Ruiz trotted to first as ump John Hirschbeck called him back, swearing it was only ball 3. Everyone else in the ballpark had apparently passed 1st grade math and knew it was ball 4. The umps actually had to hold a meeting to convince Hirschbeck that he sucked at basic math. It was yet another shiny, happy moment for MLB umpires everywhere.

Moving on, Ryan Howard played in his first game since having a cortisone shot in his left ankle. He singled in that same inning to score Victorino, which was the only offense in the game for the Phillies. Howard also made a sliding grab on a foul ball where his right foot smashed into the wall along the first base line. The right foot…not the left…whew!

After that little adventure, Brad Lidge gave up the go-ahead run to the Mets in the 8th, spoiling the day for Hamels. The Phillies took a 2-1 loss for their seventh straight. This team is giving me a headache.

But why stop there? More sucky baseball was yet to follow. In game 2 of the doubleheader, Joe Blanton pitched two good innings to start off, giving the false illusion that the Phillies might actually have a shot to win a game.

David Herndon quickly tried to stomp on all our hopes of a positive evening when he put two runners on base in the 3rd. However, a long fly ball with two outs looked liked the savior of the inning. But Hunter Pence put a quick end to that silly dream as he dropped the ball and two runs scored.

Pence was already having a bad day in his first start since being rested with knee issues. In the first inning, he hit into a double play with no outs and the bases loaded. The Phillies did not score.

As the 3rd inning disaster continued, Herndon walked another batter and Kyle Kendrick had to be brought in. Kendrick did little to help the situation, giving up two straight hits and 3 more runs. The total for the inning was 5 unearned runs gift wrapped for the Mets. And all that happened right after the Phils offense scratched and clawed for 3 runs combined in the 2nd and 3rd innings.

Kendrick, not having sucked badly enough, gave up one more run in the 4th, making those 3 Phillies runs seem totally useless. The 6-3 lead handed to the Mets would stick for the final score as the offense basically gave up after that horrid 3rd inning.

The Phillies have now lost 8 straight since clinching the division title. But these games don’t count, right? Some fans says, no worries, it does not count. Other say that bad baseball can become a habit, which will be heard to break going into the playoffs. So, after sucking pretty badly this past week, can the Phillies just flip the switch come playoff time next Saturday? There are four regular season games left, so I guess only time will tell.

For the first time in 2 seasons, the Phillies have dropped 6 consecutive games. The 6-1 loss to the Nationals on Thursday completed a 4-game sweep, making the Phillies the final MLB team to suffer a 4-game sweep that had not previously done so this year.

Oh yes, all sorts of records were set last night, and not all of them were good. The Phillies also became the 1st 98-win team to drop 6 straight since the 1904 Giants. That’s right, more than a century ago. They also became the first team EVER to lose 6 straight after clinching their division. What this means is that the Phillies have delivered bad, sucky baseball in historic proportions ;o)

So it was no surprise that the Phillies final regular season home game ended with a chorus of boo’s. Fans did not pay their hard earned money to watch the Phillies basically lay an egg on the field. For “Fan Appreciation Night,” it was more like Fan Un-appreciation Night. Like I always tell my kids, it is okay to fail as long as you go down putting up a fight. And that, more than the losses, is what bothers me about these 6 games. Not that the Phillies are trying to suck, but their hearts do not seem to be in it right now.

The one good sign to come out of the game was Roy Oswalt finally getting some life back on his fastball. He hit 95mph on the gun and stayed in the low to mid nineties most of the night. The 6 runs he allowed could have been avoided had certain defensive plays been made.

The Nats first run of the game scored when Chase Utley and John Bowker nearly collided in right field chasing after a pop-up. The miscommunication resulted in a dropped ball, which literally rolled off Utley’s mid-section:

Bowker also made an awful throw to 2nd later in the game and went 0-2 at the plate. To recap, since coming to Philly, Bowker is 0-11, he nearly killed Utley and has contributed little more than a bad throw.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, here is one GOOD play by Pete Orr:

Utley and others did not have a good series either. Joining him in the debacle were Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino. All three Phillies stars combined at the plate to go 0-36 in the 4-game series with no RBI’s, not even a sac fly. As a team, the Phillies scored only 9 runs over all 4 games. The offense was simply non-existent, except Carlos Ruiz with 3 hits. Those who always complain about Ryan Howard striking out a lot should stop and take a look at how the Phillies play without their #1 RBI machine.

Last night’s game was so horrid, that even Phillies Elvis was more entertaining:

And even more exciting than that, the Phillies pre-game ceremonies, which included Cliff Lee getting his pitcher of the month award and then addressing the crowd. Shane and Melissa Victorino also shared a cute moment as they celebrated the re-opening of the Victorino Foundation funded Nicetown Boys & Girls Club. And PA Announcer Dan Baker was greeted on field by his family to celebrate 40 years with the Phillies.

Another record-breaking moment came when the final season attendance was posted. With 45,064 at the game last night, the Phillies total attendance for the year wound up at 3,680,718, a new ballpark record. The game also marked the 204th straight regular season sell-out.

With 6 games to go, the Phillies travel to New York to play the Mets starting at 7:10pm tonight. Let us all hope they snap out of this funk and get hot going into the playoffs!

Here is the full Photo Album from Thursday’ game, including pre-game ceremonies and more Elvis.

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